Band:They Will Fall
Album: Misconceptions
Label: Unsigned
Release: 9.23.13
Reviewer: Brody
Tracklisting:
- Pain
- Lust
- Anguish
- Regret
- Rest
About a year ago to this date, I published a review for the previous record They Will Fall released. While I had some high praise for the album, I thought that the band had a decent amount of maturing to do in order to create something truly special.
With a year to play some shows, practice, and just generally grow as people, They Will Fall has returned with “Misconceptions”. This ep is a much more focused, quick to the point, and intense experience than it’s predecessor.
Pain is evidence the band’s new focus. From the opening dischords and shrieks of “Go away!” the difference between the They Will Fall we knew and who they are now is night and day. Each member of the band displays their full capabilities on this track; Austin Knies showcasing great vocal range, guitarists Aron Felkins and Corey McKnight doing more noodling in this one song that was present on the whole last album, and Chris Shifflett’s galloping double bass shines with the accompaniment of bass player Derek Deutsch’s low end chugging.
Lust is a song that clearly hits close to home with the band due to the ferocity and passion in the vocals from Knies. The song is a very in depth and descriptive look into how pornography and lust destroy people’s lives. Knies mixes things up towards the end of the track, switching up his normal howls for more of a spoken word approach as he admits,
“I like undressing girls with my eyes. I like imagining I took her home, pretending she’s my wife,
Trying to justify the issue that’s destroying my life.
All I think about is sex in any form I can find.
It’s scary how I often feel so far from grace.
It’s inescapable temptation, and my thoughts, they race.
I’m ashamed of the ideas that my mind creates.
Are you ashamed that you can relate?
Because these pornography addictions make a billion-dollar business;
Since we’re all too weak to fight our urges, we’ve been telling women
That they’re merely entertainment and otherwise just useless.
There must be more to life and love than lusting over images.”
Anguish is perhaps the heaviest track They Will Fall has released to date. Lyrically the song comes across as brutally honest, so the heavier tone compliments it nicely. However, this heavier tone does not mean the song lacks any technically. The guitars absolutely shred on this track, with a lead navigating in between all the other sounds for nearly the whole song. Knies shouts,
“Dear God, our sermons are dry.
Where is the Gospel that You told us to preach?
These people are dying.
Why can’t we get that through our heads?
It’s like we’re numb to conviction.
We pass the time desensitizing ourselves.
Have we forgotten the cross?
Have we forgotten who You are?”.
Regret and Rest both show that the band has the ability to change the tone of things at the drop of a hat. Regret is still a heavy song, but more in the sense of a lumbering rhino. Slower, but with the potential to charge full speed ahead at any moment. Rest, wraps the album up incredibly with multiple tempo changes all executed at the right moment. The album ends on a high and hopeful note as the band chants,
“Give us peace.
Give us a love that never sleeps.
Let our faith be contagious.
Take these burdens please, and show us how to finally
Run to You and never look back.”
Overall: Really the only flaw I had with the album was that some of the songs, while good, seemed to somewhat lack an identity. With tracks like Lust and Rest, I knew which tracks were playing even if I was doing something else and the music was merely background music. Other songs on the disc did not stand up to that same testing, instead blending together a bit. With that being said though, They Will Fall has continued to grow and impress me with each release they have put out. In today’s music world where most bands are content to stay stagnant and put out the same stuff each year, the fact that these guys don’t makes me incredibly hopeful for a bright future.